Projects
Amarillos
The Arroyo de Los Amarillos project area is located immediately north of Barrick's Pascua-Lama concessions, extending northward along the Argentina-Chile border. Los Amarillos hosts a number of colour anomalies visible on satellite imagery near the Barrick concession boundary. These were recognized by other operators to be epithermal alteration zones and hence the focus of nearly all previous exploratory work. It appears that less than 10% of the concession area has been mapped or explored, in part due to the difficult terrain. Because of the challenging terrain and poor access, only limited prospecting was carried out by Malbex in the 2008/2009 field season.
In addition to the +17 million ounce Pascua-Lama gold deposit to the south, Yamana is exploring immediately to the east of the Los Amarillos concessions, and Barrick continues to control the exploration concessions on the Chilean side of the border to the west.
The work program in the 2009/2010 field season at Amarillos had two main elements: (1) detailed mapping, rock sampling and geophysical (magnetometer and CSAMT) surveys of the known altered rocks in the south-western corner of the concessions to define any previously unrecognized prospective sectors; and (2) reconnaissance stream sampling of all major and associated drainages elsewhere on the property.
The first pass stream sediment sampling was completed in December 2009. Absolute values in gold and silver were low in all types of samples from all drainages.
The previously identified alteration zones in the southwest portion of Amarillos - Brecha Norte, Maria del Milagro and Pancho Villa - have been re-mapped, prospected and sampled. As of April 21, 2010, a total of 448 rock samples, 91 stream sediment samples and 77 panned concentrate samples have been collected at Amarillos. The magnetometer and CSAMT surveys will be interpreted in combination with detailed mapping and the compiled previous work to determine if previously untested drill targets are identified.
